Abridged versions of short stories and novellas written by contemporary Chinese writers, reflecting everyday life of ordinary Chinese people; The book contains around 1,000 Chinese words, among which 870 words are chosen from the 1,033 words of Level A listed in the HSK Outline and about another 130 commonly used words are also provided as supplementary. A list of the 1,000 commonly used words is appended at the back of the book; Commonly used words are used in high frequency to form concise and short sentences with complete structure; Pinyin is added to the full text, English notes or sample sentences for difficult words and sentences are provided; Guide to Reading and About the Author in English, as well as Questions in Chinese are provided for each story; With illustrations and CD in MP3 format. A pinyin-invisible card is designed specially for those who do not want to read pinyin.